You worry all day
When your friends want to play
They don’t think your fun
They think you’re quite dumb
They don’t know what is like
Eveyday is an emotional hike!
Their brother’s not austic
Theirs doesn’t go belistic!
Their brothers are normal
They can attend somewhere formal

Their dads can play
Jump shout and run all day
My dad can not
His muscles go as stiff as a robot
Their dads can play fight just a little
The best my dad can do is tickle
My dad has diabeties type two
He can’t have sugar and sweets thats true
But they are the best thing in my life
Just to go home and see them not in strife

Is my wish
My wish

I would give my life for my wish
If only they could get it
If they had it my friends would wish they could forget it
Their life or my life
Their well dad to my ill one
Their brother for my brother
I would sooner rip my heart apart!
For they were my motovation from the start.

Young carer, aged 11

My name is Tayla and I am a young carer. My twin sister has has Landua Kleffner syndrome, ODD, OCD, ADD, ASD. My experience caring for my twin sister has its ups and downs. The ups are that we play together and have fun together. The down side is that she can’t always play the games I want to, she can become a bit annoying and she bugs me sometimes when I am with my friends. I sometimes wish she was like everyone else but I know thats not going to happen. I love her very much and would do anything for her (when she lets me). I sometimes feel guilty that I get angry with her because she can be a bit frustrating at times. When I clean the room, she messes it, when I want peace and quiet she never stops talking. Katelyn will always be special to me we shared a womb, now we share a room and we have the rest of our lives together. It isn’t always easy being a carer but I just think about the things I can do and she can’t. I will lover her forever even if its tough sometimes.

Thank you.

Tayla, aged 12

My twin brother means a lot to me because he is a special boy who never gives up. He gets rough with me in the morning but that is ok because when he’s tablets kick in he’s right for the day.

Kyle is different from everyone in our class because he has a disability. Kyle is trying to write his name and read and the best thing is that Kyle and i are in the same classroom but Kyle also has to go in another classroom and that room is called the learning center. He spends most of his time there, to work, but that is ok because i can also spend some time with myself. Kyle also has some really good friends that help him along the way, at school.

My twin brother’s favourite games are gameboys, computers and Playstations. Also at school when he is aloud he plays games on he’s laptop, and plays Zonic X and other games. Kyle makes our family special to us because he has a different personality to you our me, i think Kyle is better than any other children with his behaviour and that is why i love him.

Young Carer, aged 11

He has fallen out of his wheelchair, there is no way I can pick him up, I have tried very hard to help him, but all I can do at this moment is get the phone and wait…

I am 11, I care for my dad, he has M.S which is short for Multiple Sclerosis. M.S is something that makes the nerves a lot slower. My dad has it in his legs, so he cannot walk, he has to stay in a wheelchair all day. Wouldn’t you hate that if your mum or dad was like that?

I am sure some of you are kinda like me, See I love my dad more than anything in the whole wide world! Sometimes I have to clean the house, always un-pack the dishwasher, take clothes off the line and loads more, but my most favourite job is cooking! I love to cook for my dad, because he loves what I cook.

Having M.S makes you a lot more angry. My grandma helps dad and I if something is to hard for me to do, like the shopping for instance. Well I think that is all for now, Bye Bye!

Young Carer, aged 11

My family means a lot to me because they all are deaf but I’m the only one in my family that is not deaf.

Lots of people think I’m lucky but I’m not because there’s nothing wrong with being deaf. Well I wish I was deaf because my sister can easily sleep through the night and so can my mum and dad. I love my family so much becase there so good to me and it makes me feel good and comfortable.

My sister’s favourite sport is swimming she has 38 gold medals and I am proud of my sister and my dad plays lawn bowls and he has 8 trophies and my mum plays tenpin bowling and she just brings prizes home for me and my sister and i play soccer and i have 6 trophies and I have 16 cross contry ribbions.

My dad is a chef and he is a good cook. My mum is a teacher and she teach sign language.

Young Carer, aged 11

My sister has a disability. She is funny and also annoying but she is my sister and I love her. She needs help to get dressed and with lots of other things. She likes to watch me play soccer and loves the football on t.v. My sister is great and she will always be like that.

Mitchell, aged 9

My father has a lot of diseases. He has something wrong with his muscles and they swell when he tries to do things that he needs to do to lift drive and work. My dad not working has taken a large toll on my family as we are now living off Centrelink payments mostly (at one point we were going to move into my dad’s fathers house as we couldn’t afford the one we are in now). As if the muscle thing wasn’t bad enough my dad was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes so he can’t even eat his birthday cake 🙁 On top of all this my dad also had an anurisum in his stomach which if it popped my dad would……….pass…away. He has recently had it removed.

If these thing weren’t enough for my family to try and deal with my brother has aspergers. It makes him not be able to look people in the eye, he can’t stand loud and repeating noises, he dosen’t listen to females which means me, my sister and my mum. If he dosen’t get his way he will throw a tantrum, not like a baby tantrum but a 17 yr old tantrum. He is built so sometimes I see my mum coming out from finally getting him to do whatever he was resisting. She will sometimes have bruises or will be crying that he has hurt her.

All these things happening for me are hard and they don’t really improve in school 🙁 The school I used to go to was supposed to be a christian school but instead all the kids teased me as I was new (I started there in year 1) then I didn’t have friends so I began to eat I got a little fat everyone still teased me. This made me have low self esteem I was told “I think you need two seats there” (mind you I was 7 and I weighed 30 kg) I also got things like “you need a new shirt your fats ripping the old one” This didn’t help. Over time I got friends that didn’t tease me but………they didn’t get along, every day there was a fight 🙁 I would have to join sides it was difficult as i progressed through school I found that I didn’t know my times tables. This got me put into the dumb maths class, mind you it was ok we got the nice teacher but the kids afterwards were horrible! In reading and english I exceeded them all but now now I was a nerd. In typing I was the best but in spelling I was in level two. I left that school after they tried to send me to the school psychiatrist.

I am now at a different school. There may not be as much teasing but people think they are sooooooo good and rich, but they are not! The only thing that they are good at doing is maths and discrimination!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well thank you every one I just need to tell someone that! :l

Young carer, aged 11

Hi my name is Amie I have a younger sister her name is C*. She has several illnesses such as chromosone ring 22 disorder, cerable palsy and a lazy bowl syndrome . My life has changed a lot since my sister was born. We have made sacrifices but it is worth it knowing she is getting better everyday. This year 2008 she has started school in rural NSW. Thank you for listening to my story .

Amie, aged 11

When i think of the special times we share, the quiet moments we have and the closeness we feel with one another. i cant help but feel lucky to have you… you have made my life complete, by giving me something very precious… your love

– Young Carer, aged 11

Hi my name is Tanielle. I am 9 years old and I have a brother. At first my brother was diagnosed with ADHD, ADD, and ODD. He was diagnosed with ADHD add and odd for 6 years. Now after all these years he was all of a sudden diagnosed with bipolar which my mum and I don’t know much about it so I’m finding it hard to cope with my brother.

Tanielle, aged 9